YANITO: BLESSING OR A CURSE? By Terence Moss

THIS YEAR’S GIBRALTAR Literature Week started on 8th November at the John Macintosh Hall. with a series of “An Audience With…” in conversation with local writers and culminated on 13th November with International Best-Selling Author, Lord Jeffrey Archer. The nine Audiences were a one-hour conversation with local writers discussing their recently published works of fiction, non-fiction, lifestyle, poetry, art and music. It was a great initiative organised by Gibraltar Cultural Services, as a result of the difficulty in bringing international authors because of the pandemic. There was also a bookshop where books published by local and international authors could be purchased, and, going by its popularity and sales, would indicate the need for a bookshop here in Gibraltar, where local writers could have their work on sale.

A week before the festival opened, one of the “Audiences with…” previewed that there would be a discussion on “If Gibraltar literature exists.” Giordano Durante in a yourgibraltartv. com blog outlined his opinion on Gibraltar literature, which I invite you to read for further information. Most of the points raised by Giordano were discussed at the “Audience with …Dr Jennifer Ballantine and Trino Cruz”. I do not wish to repeat Giordano’s article, but I will refer to some of the excellent issues he addresses. Giordano’s opening remark was that “the question felt like an academic mask for a deeper set of prejudices”. It did make me think about our Yanito and if that was an advantage or a hindrance.

Yanito is seen as working very well as a dramatic voice. It has no structure and no rules. It is a form of Andalusian Spanish which is heavily laced with English words, with a great deal of code switching, and has evolved over the last one hundred years. It uses a lot of calques, which are words borrowed from another language by literal translation. As a novel, it would be incomprehensible to anyone other than a Gibraltarian but to include it as dialogue of characters within a novel would enrich the experience of reading about a story set in Gibraltar.

I fell in love with the Faroes Islands when I went there for a visit and was eager to read about them in stories. I found a detective trilogy written by an Englishman and whereas the novels were entertaining it did not give me the feeling that I was in the Faroe Islands. Unlike the excellent Commisario Brunetti set in Venice written by Donna Leone who is a resident of Venice or the translated Commisario Montalbano, written by Sicilian writer, Andrea Camilleri, and set in Sicily. I then came across a detective story written by Jógvan Isaksen, Walpuris Tide, set during the annual whale-kill in Tórshavn, and that novel felt I was back in the Faroes. It was enriched with local politics, geographical detail, local traditions and customs. You could tell it was written by a Danish Faroese who knew his country well. Indeed, Stephen King, my favourite author, says in his book, On Writing, “Write about what you know”. Why then did local author, M.G.Sanchez, when interviewed by Humbert Hernandez, say that “somebody high up in the Gibraltarian establishment” had told him to stop being so ‘Gibraltar-fixated’? As Giordano Durante commented in his piece - “this approach betrays a stunning ignorance of literature and literary history.”

I felt there was enough evidence during the week that there is a culture here and consequently a literature. The next step is to enable some of these works to enter ‘world literature’, beyond our boundaries, and the internet is an obvious medium for global circulation. and yanito in novels, historical books and our arts to support that the Gibraltarian culture exists, as a browse through the books on display at the bookstore during the festival clearly showed. The “In Audience with” sessions also reflected this.

• Clive Beltran speaking about his new book, “Yodo Morao and all that…”, which is a series of vignettes about life in Gibraltar in the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote it as a record for his grandchildren, and as he said, “It is about Gibraltar’s intangible history”. If you want a trip down memory lane, he suggests you make it a family Christmas gift, as all proceeds going to Calpe House.

• Sam Benady discussed his literary journey with his historical and fiction works, particularly his seven Bresciano crime novels that he co-wrote with the late Mary Chiappe.

• Rosanna Morales’ “Ageing in the Garden of Vegan” and Justin Bautista’s “Mama Lottie’s Vegan Cookbook” talked about reconnecting with the natural world. Rosanna’s aim is to be a good ancestor and embrace a plantbased diet to tackle our global crisis. Justin’s goal is to veganise traditional Gibraltar recipes, and get families to cook together as a family.

• Richard Garcia outlined his research into the civilian population from 1704, as part of his trilogy into the early history of British Gibraltar.

• Karl Ullger spoke about his art during lockdown and his involvement in an online community, Cane-Yo, where his personal Gibraltarian identity was exposed to a global audience.

• Rebecca Calderon’s “Ten Thousand Words” discussed her recently published collection of short stories where she emphasised how she used her mixed culture background for her stories. She wants us to “embrace” our literature in Gibraltar and is an example of how to take your personal ethnicity to mainstream levels.

• Humbert Hernandez discussed his new book, “A Time Remembered,” with Cecil Gomez, about the history and development of amateur drama from the 1960s. Elio Cruz’ plays were discussed with emphasis on the “yanito” plays that were so popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

• Gabriel Moreno provided an insight into his “pain and pride of being a Gibraltarian in London”, gave us a rendition of some of his tender verses.

• Trino Cruz spoke about his extensive work as a translator in English, Spanish, French and Moroccan Taringa Arabic.

We must also not forget the works of other well-known published writers, like M.G.Sanchez, the plays of Julian Felice, Paco Oliva and others. They all have a connection to Gibraltar, and as Giordano Durante says in his piece, are “an embodiment of Gibraltar Literature.”

Jennifer Ballantine and Trino Cruz, in their Audience session, did address the question of the next steps. I did some research into world literature and discovered that in 2019, 3% of published works in the US are works in translation, whereas in Italy, it is more than 50% of titles. There is an annual book fair in Bologna and Frankfurt, where I am sure translating licensing agreements are made, so our “hang-up” with our Yanito expressions and our bilingualism could be resolved. Whereas both Jennifer and Trino agreed that there has been a growth of Gibraltar works in recent years, they felt there needs to be a pathway with editors and mentors to guide potential writers through the process of publishing. This begs the question. Why do we not have an effective and dynamic publishing house in Gibraltar? There is Calpe Press which has been inactive for years and the website was “under construction” when I researched it. We need a well-organised publishing house in Gibraltar to provide this pathway. It should be for works of fiction and non-fiction about Gibraltar. The Government currently provides a loan to prospective writers to get their work published or self-published. I suggest this grant be transferred to a new Publishing House, where they can assess the suitability of the work, that it is about Gibraltar, and that the person applying is a resident. They will also provide the support to secure literary agents by attending these annual international book fairs.

In the Q&A part of the Audience with Ballantine and Cruz, H.E.Governor, Sir David Steele, suggested that we should be using English and the creativity of Spanish to enrich our works. Other prominent members of our community present also highlighted how in our school days, we were punished for speaking in Spanish, because of the Anglophilic school curriculum. Minister Cortes wished to see a move towards more Spanish speaking in schools, because nowadays we do not watch Spanish TV and Spanish films like we used to in the 1960s and 1970s. He also wanted to embrace “our positionality”, as Jennifer Ballantine talked about, by not forgetting our English, our Spanish, and for some, their Moroccan culture. I agree with his remarks. That is what makes us Gibraltarian. It should be what we write about, and we should be proud of it!

Dr Sam Benady said “I think a community that doesn’t have a history isn’t a community. If you don’t know your history, you are not conscious of what came before you.”

When asked by a member of the audience whether he would include a local RGP to help his character William Warwick solve a crime, Lord Archer, after a little thought, replied “No.” However, at the evening dinner, he did promise guests that he would include a Gibraltarian London cabbie in a future novel and that his name would be John Cortes! Perhaps Lord Archer is telling us that we should be writing our own stories about Gibraltar instead of relying on a best seller do it for us.

Minister John Cortes could not have expressed it better in his speech at the evening dinner.

“Our culture reaches out into the world from the Rock-hard foundations, from a community whose identity has never been stronger.”

There is well known Moroccan saying about the storytellers in Marrakech, “When a storyteller dies, a library burns.” I sincerely hope that this initiative to include local writers in our Literary Week continues every year. We must not let our yanito, our bilingualism, our culture burn!